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European Academy of Andrology (EAA): Report of activities in 2023

2024; Wiley; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/andr.13794

2047-2927

Ewa Rajpert‐De Meyts, Hermann M. Behre,

Sexual Differentiation and Disorders

The first full year of my term as the European Academy of Andrology (EAA) President was busy but also very exciting. The most important event of the year was the merger of the EAA with the International Network of Young Researchers in Andrology (NYRA), signed by the two boards in June 2023. The last formal step will be the approval of the revised EAA Statutes by the General Assembly. The merger is a clear win–win situation for both organizations: the EAA will gain many young and enthusiastic basic researchers, while the NYRA will receive guaranteed support for their activities and access to a vastly enlarged network, with many senior EAA members providing opportunities for training and jobs. I thank the NYRA President Alberto de la Iglesia for his dedicated work to finalize the merger. The EAA's core events promoting andrology are the EAA Schools. Four Schools took place in 2023, including the seventh edition of the EAA School in Ultrasound coordinated by Francesco Lotti and Andrea Isidori, a new EAA Microsurgery School, initiated by Zsolt Kopa in Budapest, the second ANDRONET-EAA School in Semen Analysis organized by Lars Bjørndahl in Stockholm, and the fourth edition of the Budapest Andrology School, combined with the EAA Clinical Andrologist exam, organized by Csilla Krausz and Zsolt Kopa. Many thanks to all organizers and congratulations to the newly certified andrologists! Our educational mission is best served by the EAA-accredited Andrology Training centers and I am very happy that we have now one more center in the Middle East—in Doha (Qatar). Several other centers were re-accredited during the year. Many thanks to Csilla Krausz and the EAA Accreditation Committee for their work. For basic scientists, a highlight of the year was the European Testis Workshop held in June in Montreux, Switzerland, supported by the ANDRONET COST Action and the EAA. I use this opportunity to thank the organizers, especially Rafael Oliva, the leader of ANDRONET and the EAA's Executive Council member. Among other events, close to my heart was the 32nd edition of the Summer Academy organized by the Center of Reproductive Medicine and Andrology in Münster, which concluded with a Symposium honoring Prof. Ebo Nieschlag, the founder of the EAA and my former mentor. I am also happy that Andrology—our official scientific journal—entered successfully the second decade of its existence. I thank the immediate past and current Editors for their hard work, including compiling interesting thematic issues and clinical guidelines. I participated in the writing of the guidelines on male contraception, prepared jointly with the American Society of Andrology and was pleased with this highly professional collaboration with our sister society in America. The last part of the year was mainly filled up with preparing the next European Congress of Andrology (ECA2024), together with the Program Organizing Committee, and the Local Organizing Committee in Stockholm led by Jan-Bernd Stukenborg. We hope that the ECA2024 will be a success. Hermann M. Behre In June 2023, during the European Testis Workshop in Switzerland, representatives of the board of the NYRA and the EAA Executive Council (Figure 1) met to finalize the merger of the two organizations. Pending the formal change of the EAA Statutes, NYRA will become the young arm of the EAA, opening the EAA's membership benefits for scores of young researchers working in the field of male reproduction.1 NYRA is the largest network of early career scientists in the field of andrology, and has a very successful past, including organization of 15 annual meetings especially tailored for the young scientist audience.2 NYRA will retain its website (https://nyra-youngresearch.eu/) and its circle of followers outside the EAA. The Presidents of NYRA—starting from Alberto de la Iglesia in 2023 and 2024—will become a member ex officio of the EAA Executive Council. A special NYRA–EAA membership category with a low annual fee of €25 has been created for NYRA members in training, and several young researchers took advantage of this opportunity already in 2023. The fourth edition of the EAA Budapest School (February 28–March 3, 2023) was co-organized by Zsolt Kopa (EAA Training Center in Budapest), Csilla Krausz (EAA Past President), and the EAA Office, with support from the EAA and ANDRONET COST Action (CA20119). For the first time after the COVID-19 crisis, the school's program included two full modules: a course in basic andrology for clinicians seeking EAA certification in andrology, and an advanced course on "Treatment of male infertility" open for all attendees. The faculty was composed of the members of the EAA Executive Council and invited experts in andrology and sexual medicine: G. Corona, A. Isidori, S. Minhas, and Y. Reisman. The social program included an interesting visit to the Semmelweis Museum of Medical History, honoring the Hungarian physician who was a pioneer of aseptic procedures. The school was a great success, with the capacity attendance of 36 participants from 27 countries (Figure 2). After the course, the examination for the certificate of EAA Clinical Andrologist was held, with a group of Egyptian colleagues participating online. The successful recipients of the EAA certificate were: Omar Abdulsalam M. H. Azzazi (Egypt), Simon Caerels (Belgium), Anais De Landstheer (Belgium), Mahmoud Elbitar (Egypt), Hossam Refaat E. M. Eldebs (Egypt), Robin Epplen (Germany), Stepan Krasnyak (Russia), Mohamed Fahmi Abd El Motaleb Omar (Egypt), Mina Labid Masoud Saad (Egypt), Mohamed M. Ragab Shehata (Egypt), Réka Eszter Sziva (Hungary), Jolijn Van Cauwenberghe (Belgium), Dániel Varga (Hungary), Judit Vargha (Hungary), and Andrea Vasquez Franco (Spain). The seventh edition of the oldest EAA School was held in 2023. This popular School is renowned for its high-quality training in andrological ultrasound, helping to standardize the methodology of the male genital tract and penile ultrasound in Europe. The School's Coordinators are Francesco Lotti (University of Florence) and Andrea M. Isidori ("Sapienza" University of Rome), with additional faculty composed of experienced imaging specialists from both centers: Carlotta Pozza (Rome), Elisa Maseroli (Florence), Daniele Gianfrilli (Rome), Sarah Cipriani (Florence), Francesca Frizza (Florence), and Marta Tenuta (Rome). The following colleagues completed successfully the 2023 edition of the school, passing the exam either exceptionally at the end of the course: Hassan Beltran Del Rio (Mexico) or in Rome on June 7, 2024: Aleksej Ryzkhov (Russia), Ghazi Mohamed (France), Tamás Takács (Hungary), Seso Sulijaya Suyono (Indonesia), Levis Panagiotis (United Kingdom), Nazim Gherabi (Algeria), and Gyula Drabik (Hungary). The EAA School in Microsurgery is the latest addition to the educational portfolio of the Academy. The first edition of the school was held in Budapest on April 17–21, 2023 (Figure 3). The school was initiated and organized by Prof. Zsolt Kopa, Director of the EAA Budapest Center, which regularly performs all kinds of microsurgical interventions in andrology. The program comprised both theoretical and practical education with live surgeries in the field of reconstructive microsurgery, microsurgical sperm retrieval techniques, and subinguinal microsurgical varicocelectomy. The course was heavy on hands-on practical exercises, so it could accommodate only eight participants. The feedback from the participants was excellent, and the school is expected to become a recurrent annual event. The EAA-supported course was organized by Niels Jørgensen and Lise Aksglæde (Figure 4) under the umbrella of the Danish and Swedish Andrological Societies, and took place at the EAA Training Center in Copenhagen on June 7–9, 2023. In addition to top Danish experts, international speakers included M. Holmberg, S. Arver, A. Hagelin, and A. Giwercman (all from Sweden), and D. Vanderschueren (Belgium). The course was oversubscribed and attended by 30 participants instead of 25 initially planned. The event received very high marks by the attendees. The second edition of the School in Semen Analysis was held on October 9–13, 2023 at the specialized unit: Andrology, Sexual Medicine & Transgender Medicine (ANOVA) of Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, one of the two EAA Training Centers in Sweden. The program of the school covered "Theory and training in basic semen examination according to WHO 2021 and ISO 23162:2021," and the expert teachers were Lars Björndahl and Magdalena Larsson Chatziantonis. In addition to the extensive lecture program, this School included "hands-on" laboratory exercises, hence, the attendance was limited to seven participants from Sweden and abroad. The EAA has established a formal collaboration with the European Society of Endocrinology (ESE) and organizes andrology-related courses or sessions at the annual European Congress of Endocrinology (ECE). At the latest ECE 2023 held in Istanbul (May 13–16, 2023) the EAA organized the Symposium "Novel Frontiers in Andrology." The speakers included EAA members Csilla Krausz, Ravinder Anand-Ivell, and Rosario Pivonello. Gulia Rastrelli, who served as co-Chair, presented also a talk on hypogonadism in another session. The EAA-certified Andrology Training Center in Cairo, directed by Professors Osama Shaeer and Kamal Shaeer, held its annual conference on May 19, 2023. The program of the conference included lectures presenting the latest results from the Cairo Center and collaborating institutions, and a guest talk delivered by the EAA Secretary, E. Rajpert-De Meyts, concerning the diagnosis and pathobiology of testicular germ cell tumors (Figure 5). The 22nd European Testis Workshop (ETW2023), the prime event in the field of tests biology and pathology, took place on June 18–22 at Palace de Caux, Montreux, Switzerland. The Workshop was co-organized and co-financed by the ANDRONET Cost Action and supported by the EAA. The Workshop was preceded by the 15th meeting of the NYRA at the same location. ANDRONET held a Management Committee meeting and its own Symposium showcasing the network's activities. ANDRONET contributed substantially to the success of the Workshop and helped more than 70 scientists to attend, thanks to generous reimbursement of expenses, financed by the COST funds. The triple event broke the attendance records (>260 participants) and was a great success, with an excellent scientific program, more than a hundred flash talks, plentiful time for networking, and a stunning location. The main organizers; Pei-Hsuan Wu and Serge Nef (University of Geneva), deserve big thanks and congratulations! The EAA Center in Zagreb, with the support of the Center of Excellence for Reproductive and Regenerative Medicine, organized the fifth Andrology Symposium in the Croatian capital on September 11, 2023. The Symposium covered a variety of andrology topics, including fetal testis development genetics, three-dimensional (3D) systems for spermatogenesis in vitro, epigenetic markers for testicular germ cell tumors, predictive models for spermatozoa retrieval in biopsies of azoospermic men, and others. Apart from the local scientific community, the Symposium hosted two international lecturers; Klementina Fon Tacer (United States) and Monika Fijak (Germany). Especially notable was the Young Ph.D. Session that encompassed seven short but exciting presentations of Ph.D. students (Figure 6). The Symposium ended with an informal gathering and a visit to Zagreb's upper town. This recurrent educational course, held on September 25–29, 2023, was organized by Stefan Schlatt and Sabine Kliesch, the Directors of the Center of Reproductive Medicine and Andrology at Münster University, and an EAA Training Center. The course was entitled "Basics and clinics of human reproduction" and covered the full spectrum of andrology, including endocrinology of reproduction with focus on androgens, sexual differentiation, biology of germline stem cells, genetics and epigenetics, male and female (in)fertility, pre-implantation diagnostics, fertility preservation, contraception, sexual dysfunction, aging in reproduction, andro-urological surgery, transgender medicine, semen analysis, and bioethics in reproduction. The faculty included recognized experts in the field from Germany and abroad. The event ended with the Symposium "Milestones in Andrology: from Androgens to Sperm" which was held in honor of Professor Ebo Nieschlag (Figure 7). The speakers highlighted the many illustrious achievements of Prof. Nieschlag, among which was his major role in the foundation of the EAA, and his service as the first President of the EAA. The EAA Executive Council was represented by President Hermann Behre, who presented the history and current status of spermatology and external quality control, Secretary Ewa Rajpert-De Meyts, who summarized the history of the EAA, and Aleksander Giwercman, who presented an entertaining vision of the future of the field seen from his perspective as the Editor of Andrology. The most important news of the 2023 was the accreditation of a new EAA training center in Doha (Qatar). In addition, after a long break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the EAA Accreditation Committee, now led by the immediate past President Csilla Krausz, has resumed its activities with full force, resulting in re-accreditation of several EAA Training Centers. The Andrology and Male Fertility Unit at Hamad General Hospital in Doha (Qatar), directed by Dr. Sami Al-Said (EAA Academician), has since 2022 sought formal accreditation as an EAA Training Center. The Unit's medical staff includes two other EAA Academicians; Dr. Mohamed M. Arafa and Dr. Ahmad Majzoub. After the positive pre-approval of the application from the Unit by the EAA Accreditation Committee, the site visit of Professors Csilla Krausz (Italy) and Eduard Ruiz-Castañé (Spain) took place on November 2, 2023 (Figure 8). Subsequently, the EAA Accreditation Committee and the Executive Council have approved the visitors' report and formally accredited the Unit in Doha as the EAA Training Center. During the year 2023, several EAA centers were re-accredited, either based on self-reported activities over the last 3 years or after a site visit by the representatives of the EAA Accreditation Committee (the site visits take place every 6 years). The following centers were re-accredited for the next 3 years (2023–2026): In 2023, Andrology, the official journal of EAA and ASA, entered the second decade of its existence.3 The year was very busy, with the annual number of submissions reaching the highest ever number of 784. The impact factor (IF) of Andrology for 2022, released in late June 2023, has risen to 4.50. We are grateful to the immediate past and the current Chief Editors Manuela Simoni and Marie-Claude Hofmann, and the Deputy Editor Aleksander Giwercman for their hard work resulting in the best IF ever. Congratulations! The rules for the annual Andrology award have been changed, so the award for each year is given more than a full year after publication, to give a better chance for articles published at the end of each year. The change resulted in one transition year, so to fill the void the Board of Associate Editors decided to give the "Ten years of Andrology" award, for one of the highest cited articles since the launch of the journal in 2012.3 The award went to the article published in 2013 by Jordi Ribas-Maynou and colleagues (Spain), which rigorously compared most common methodologies for analyzing sperm DNA fragmentation.4 Dr. Ribas-Maynou presented (remotely) the award talk at the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Andrology in Boston, MA, USA (April 19–23, 2023). The contraception article is the first clinical practice guideline prepared jointly by the EAA and the ASA. At the end of 2023, Marie-Claude Hofmann (ASA) stepped down after 4 years of her editorial term, and Aleksander Giwercman (EAA) replaced her as the new Editor-in-Chief, after serving for 2 years (2022–2023) as Deputy Editor. In 2024, Professor Wei Yan of Los Angeles, California, appointed by ASA, will become the new Deputy Editor. We extend our gratitude to Marie-Claude Hofmann for her dedicated work for Andrology, wish the best to Aleksander Giwercman in his new role, and congratulate and welcome Wei Yan! The EAA Academician and EAA Secretary, Ewa Rajpert-De Meyts, was honored by the American Society of Andrology with the "Distinguished Andrologists Award" presented at the 48th Annual ASA Conference in Boston (April 19–23, 2023). The EAA welcomed the following members in 2023 or promoted previous regular members to Academicians (listed in alphabetical order): Academicians: Ravinder Anand-Ivell (Nottingham, United Kingdom), Ettore Caroppo (Bari, Italy), Ahmad A. Majzoub (Doha, Qatar), Birute Zilaitiene (Kaunas, Lithuania) Regular members (incl. EAA-NYRA members): Rachid Aboutaieb (Casablanca, Morocco), Mohammed Sultan Mahmoud Amaireh (Amman, Jordan), Hassan Beltran Del Rio (Monterrey, Mexico), Anastasia Bezrucico (Norwich, United Kingdom), Klaudia Brożyna-Tkaczyk (Lublin, Poland), Bartosz Brzoszczyk (Bydgoszcz, Poland), Piotr Byczkiewicz (Łódz, Poland), Alessandro Ciarloni (Ancona, Italy), Emily Delgouffe (Brussels, Belgium), Piotr Dzigowski (Warsaw, Poland), Hossam R. M. Eldebs (Cairo, Egypt), Ramzy R. M. Elnabarawy (Cairo, Egypt), Mohamed Ghazi (Saint-Etienne, France), Nazim Gherabi (Algiers, Algeria), Jorge de Jesús González Moncayo (Chihuahua, Mexico), Aylin Hansen (Bonn, Germany), Iurii V. Kastrikin (Moscow, Russia), Georgijs Kirakozovs (Riga, Latvia), Nandan Kishur Kar (Cumilla, Bangladesh), Anđela Kovačević (Bonn, Germany/Montenegro), Marija Lazovska (Riga, Latvia), Sandro Lütolf (Biel, Switzerland), Thibault Masai (Mons, Belgium), Zoltan Attila Mihaly (Cluj Napoca, Romania), Khalid Mustafa (Doha, Qatar), Sorin Nedelea (Bucharest, Romania), Katarzyna Paczkowska (Wrocław, Poland), David Pening (Brussels, Belgium), Arina Puchkina (Rotterdam, the Netherlands), André Rios dos Santos (Gunanabara, Brazil), Elena von Rohden (Herlev, Denmark), Tarek Rouag (Constantine, Algeria), Aleksei Ryzhkov (Yaroslavl, Russia), Adrian Sadovnic (Chișinău, Moldova), Chiara Scibetta (Padova, Italy), Piotr Sekuła (Krakow, Poland), Shiyan Tang (Oxford, United Kingdom), Alejandro Silva Garreton (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain), Ondřej Šimoník (Vestec, Czech Republic), Daniele Tienforti (L'Aquila, Italy), Abdelali Zoghmar (Constantine, Algeria). The authors thank Krisztina Csongrádi, Krisztina Jeszenöi, and Nándor Mátrai from the EAA Office for their expert help with all EAA activities. The EAA acknowledges financial support obtained from ANDRONET COST Action 20119 for the EAA Schools and numerous travel grants for EAA members to attend the Schools and the 22nd European Testis Workshop in Switzerland. The ANDRONET (CA20119) is supported by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology.